Hungarian news in English, your guide to the politics of Hungary.

Only Hungary didn’t join Macron’s consultation

Almost all member states have joined Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to launch an EU-wide consultation about Europe’s future, with one exception, Eurologus reports.

French President Emmanuel Macron has previously announced that France initiates a consultation across Europe about the EU’s future. After a vast online consultation which would ask the citizens generic questions about the future of Europe, local debates would come in the interested member states.

After the informal meeting of EU leaders on Friday, Macron told journalists that 26 EU leaders agreed to conduct the consultation, but Hungary didn’t. “This must surprise you”, he joked.

“If there is a government in Europe that can be proud of the fact that it regularly asks for the opinion of the people, then it is the Hungarian government”, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said at a press conference on another topic on Saturday. He said that for the moment it was impossible to know anything concrete about the consultation that the French head of state is proposing, but if President Macron wants to achieve tax harmonisation within the EU then that would result in “brutal tax increases” in Hungary, and accordingly the government is not supporting such efforts.